I was going through my notes and materials and came across some of my folders where I kept articles about Greyhawk I printed off the net. This made me think about my first discovery of fan made Greyhawk materials.
In the late 1990's I only had the email that we got as a student at the university and had to use the school's computers. At the school computer lab, I was able to check online for a bit during off hours. Lo and behold, I found some kindred Greyhawkers out there on the internet. A lot of people like me, who had .edu email extensions and obviously put their labors of love up in their spare time between classes.
Back in the days of yore, I would print off the articles I found on Greyhawk as I could find them (at 5 cents a pop for the paper) as I couldn't save the articles any other way. Somehow, the binders full of these old articles still survived after countless moves and life events.
The best site was the Codex of Greyhawk. Its purpose was to collect various Greyhawk files scattered across the 'net, and put them in one, central archive. Articles from The Oerth Journal, The Council of Greyhawk, and message boards were posted here and they represented some of the best of the non official Greyhawk lore of this or any time. Some folk who have been Canonfire regulars have early materials posted on the Codex, as well as a few who have become professional RPG writers.
My personal favorites on the Codex are the series on the "Dragons of Aerdy" and the "Geoff Project". These offer different takes on some major adventuring areas and have top notch ideas and writing styles. If for no other reason, swing by the Codex and check these articles out, I have not been able to find them anywhere else. Major kudos goes to all the authors of these works, I certainly gained a lot of inspiration from them over the years.
The Codex is still available on the Wayback Machine. This is a true time capsule to the early days of fan created materials for Greyhawk. Some of the links are not working, so I recommend you give it a quick look see sooner rather than later. It seems that the longer time goes by the more old internet lore gets lost in cyberspace. Some of the articles on the Codex are available elsewhere, but if you have not checked it out, do so.
O-D, your experience discovering the various Greyhawk fan-sites on the internet sounds just like my own.
I loved the Codex of Greyhawk and Iquander's posts (Erik Mona) inspired me to seek out the opportunity to participate myself. I lacked the time to follow through back then (1998, or so), but succeeded years later, all due to the inspiration of those early posters.
In fact, the reason I found Canonfire! was because years later I was trying to find the Codex of Greyhawk and the Oerth Journal.
Thanks for sharing this lovely recollection. Like you, and many others, I delighted to find the online Greyhawk community in the late 1990s and have fond memories of the GreyTalk and Greyhawk-L listservs (and the Greyhawk AOL folder).
I particularly remember my amazement at reading (and eventually posting to) the Greyhawk AOL folder, a GREYALL.TXT (providing an edited log of the folder from Sept. 17, 1997 to Dec. 31, 1998), and volume 1, issue 7 of the Oerth Journal.
Greyhawk's community of online fans has such a rich history. I wish we could access all that's been created but am glad that Canonfire!, Greyhawk Online, and other websites, blogs, etc. have archived some of our collective creations.
I want to direct your attention to the Codex of Greyhawk articles that were the source materials.
I was going through the Codex of Greyhawk on the internet archives and made a point to go through each article I could access. I found a few that I had missed from long ago and saw that there were still some gems to uncover from the Codex.
I had also just read through the module PC4 Sacklewood - To Catch a Troll (available on the Canonfire downloads) and saw that the NPC wizard from that adventure could mesh well with the College of Shadow Mastery from the Codex. Seemed like a natural fit to put in the NPC from that adventure to the shadow school. Then I read through the NPC and magic sections of the Codex and ran across the spells of a wizard from Chendl and that became the basis for that write up in the article.
It is good to see that some of the oldest of fan made Greyhawk lore can still inspire something after all these years. I encourage you to revisit the Codex of Geyhawk and check out all the old school goodness on it! Hope you enjoy the article.
Thanks again for creating this Osmund-Davizid. Not only have I read your latest article, but I also read GVDammerung's "The Wizards Library Part 1 of 6" and skimmed his four "Literature of the Flanaess" articles regarding Liam Wilspare. Then, per your encouragement, I read the introduction to Scott Seeber's "Scrolls of the Shadow Lord." Finally, I skimmed Dragon issue 123 and recalled how much I enjoyed that issue, particularly James A. Yates's "The Mystic College: Magical academies for AD&D® game sorcerers."
What you've done is very generative. Between the six schools, which, if any have featured in your campaigns? I like how you've crafted each to be distinctive from the others, differently aligned, located in diverse locations across the Flanaess, and consequently having a different context in their locale's political economy.
IMC, Monmurg is the largest city that the PCs regularly visit although the campaign began with the three PCs having just boarded a ship in Gradsul and bound for Monmurg, so in background they've all been in the largest city in the southwestern Flanaess.
After I glimpsed Gary Holian's "Sorcerous Societies of the Flanaess," Oerth Journal Vol.1, Issue #3 (Mar. 20, 1996), republished in the Codex of Greyhawk, I adopted his "Sea Mages" guild for Gradsul and his (tongue-in-cheek) "Wizards of the Coast" guild of Monmurg with "influence in both Westkeep and Port Toli[.]" But to date, I've not specified much about them, except to say that they provide an affiliation for the established wizards of Monmurg, which include the Prince's court wizard. Also, I renamed them, deriving "Mágoi tis Aktís" from Greek and/or Macedonian and the naming conventions that I've been developing for my campaign.
IMC, most wizards in the Hold of the Sea Princes have learned their craft through long apprenticeships with individual masters. (A handful studied elsewhere, including one in Greyhawk according to Mortellan. See Michael Bridges, "Unconquered Hold of the Sea Princes," Oerth Journal #32 (Mar. 2020).)
However, I've long been intrigued by Samwise's treatment of the history of Keoland. E.g., "Grand Sheldomar Timeline Expansion and Revision, Part II" (Dec. 11, 2005). In particular, his treatment of the differences between the Rhola and Toli Suel, and their preferred magicks—evocation for the former, necromancy for the latter—felt compelling. See Appendix II in "The Rhola and the Toli: the Battle for Jeklea Bay" (Sept. 18, 2005). Thus, I've toyed with the idea of a more organized school for wizards, possibly sponsored by the "mother temple" of Wee Jas in Port Toli and will be sure to refer to your treatment when I finally detail it.
As far as what I actually have used in my campaigns, I only used the Mageholm in Rel Deven and the School of Fire to any large degree.
For Mageholm, I had my party immediately following the Greyhawk Wars assisting Otto in trying to find his henchman Johanna who had disappeared. I had Johanna investigating some artifacts and magic at the school and then caught up int he war in Almor. I tied in the apportation school from Dragon 220 (mostly so the mages could have access to a mass teleportation spell). They then searched through the ruined lands of Almor, rescuing people trapped by the Aerdy armies and finding a cache of lore that Johanna researched at Mageholm (the notes on the Orbs of Dragonkind from Dragon Magazine 230). Eventually they did rescue Johanna (there was a personal interest in it as well, the party had adventured with her in Vecna Lives) and got her to safety in Castle Goldbolt. But with that, the party had connections in Rel Deven to the magic school and had a source of lore and new spells.
The School of Fire was investigated some time later in the party's role as spies for Keoland. That ended up being part of the longer campaign to liberate the Sea Princes and have Keoland annex them. The School of Fire then continued to operate now under new management.
The other examples were just made up for the article. But now I definitely want to send a group up to the Land of Iuz to disrupt the school of Kemin Mind Bender. In my opinion, that villain needs some more attention, as he is too powerful to be left underdeveloped.
Hope you can use these ideas and make them your own!
As far as what I actually have used in my campaigns, I only used the Mageholm in Rel Deven and the School of Fire to any large degree.
For Mageholm, I had my party immediately following the Greyhawk Wars assisting Otto in trying to find his henchman Johanna who had disappeared. I had Johanna investigating some artifacts and magic at the school and then caught up int he war in Almor. I tied in the apportation school from Dragon 220 (mostly so the mages could have access to a mass teleportation spell). They then searched through the ruined lands of Almor, rescuing people trapped by the Aerdy armies and finding a cache of lore that Johanna researched at Mageholm (the notes on the Orbs of Dragonkind from Dragon Magazine 230). Eventually they did rescue Johanna (there was a personal interest in it as well, the party had adventured with her in Vecna Lives) and got her to safety in Castle Goldbolt. But with that, the party had connections in Rel Deven to the magic school and had a source of lore and new spells.
Neat. Your mention made me review Johanna from Vecna Lives!. Since Cook destroyed it, I've often thought that a campaign in Almor could be great—possibly starting with the PCs evacuating from Chathold prior to the "Day of Dust" to safeguard some relic.
Osmund-Davizid wrote:
The School of Fire was investigated some time later in the party's role as spies for Keoland. That ended up being part of the longer campaign to liberate the Sea Princes and have Keoland annex them. The School of Fire then continued to operate now under new management.
I love how in your campaign, the PCs worked to "liberate" the Hold of the Sea Princes for Keoland, whereas in my campaign (following Samwise in his multipart "Grand Sheldomar Timeline" and related CF! articles, IMC, the PCs, two of which were born and raised in the Hold, have been taught to think of Keoland as the unjust imperial power. (IMC, the Prince of Monmurg, and his closest vassals, proceeded with manumission in their lands when the Council of Princes rejected Jeon II's proposal to abolish slavery throughout the Hold.)
Osmund-Davizid wrote:
The other examples were just made up for the article. But now I definitely want to send a group up to the Land of Iuz to disrupt the school of Kemin Mind Bender. In my opinion, that villain needs some more attention, as he is too powerful to be left underdeveloped.
I agree and immediately began imagining characters that were trained by Kermin . . .
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